You can then plug the drive into a PC, using an inexpensive (US$10 or so) hard drive-to-USB connector kit, widely available online (examples<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Once the salvaged drive is connected to your PC, you can use your normal file-management tools to recover the data from the drive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On the other hand, if the drive itself is dead — won’t spin up, won’t respond to new connections — your best bet is probably a professional data-recovery service. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Permalink: https:\/\/langa.com\/?p=2422<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n COMMENT \/ QUESTION<\/strong> on THIS ITEM?<\/strong> See the<\/em> Comment box<\/strong> at bottom of this page!<\/em> If the actual laptop is broken — destroyed screen, liquid on the keyboard, or some such — there’s a good chance the drive itself is OK. If that’s the case, you can physically salvage the drive and use another PC to recover the drive’s data. First, unplug the laptop and remove the battery. Flip the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[7,30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2422","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-a-reader-asks","category-hardware"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paaiox-D4","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2040,"url":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/2019\/02\/14\/a-reader-asks-how-do-i-unfreeze-my-laptop-ive-pressed-ctrl-shift-del-but-it-did-not-work\/","url_meta":{"origin":2422,"position":0},"title":"A reader asks: “How do I unfreeze my laptop? I’ve pressed ctrl-shift-del but it did not work.”","author":"Fred Langa","date":"2019-02-14","format":false,"excerpt":"If a laptop is completely unresponsive to normal keys and switches, your only option is to kill the power. Try pressing and holding down the PC's power button for 15 seconds or so: Many electronic devices (not just PCs) will perform a forced power-off after the power button is continuously\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "A reader asks..."","block_context":{"text":"A reader asks...","link":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/category\/a-reader-asks\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2364,"url":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/2019\/03\/19\/a-reader-asks-which-is-a-better-way-to-speed-up-an-older-laptop-add-more-ram-or-change-the-old-hard-drive-to-a-solid-state-drive\/","url_meta":{"origin":2422,"position":1},"title":"A reader asks: “Which is a better way to speed up an older laptop, add more RAM, or change the old hard drive to a solid-state drive?”","author":"Fred Langa","date":"2019-03-19","format":false,"excerpt":"In general, \u201colder laptops\u201d were mostly 32-bit systems, which mathematically max out at 4GB of RAM. If the laptop has less RAM than that, I\u2019d consider starting there, to bring the laptop to its full memory complement. Because it\u2019s an \u201colder system,\u201d you probably can buy RAM for cheap. If\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "A reader asks..."","block_context":{"text":"A reader asks...","link":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/category\/a-reader-asks\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/langa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/1280px-Samsung-1GB-DDR2-Laptop-RAM-e1587235482510.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5099,"url":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/2020\/05\/28\/what-is-the-difference-between-sleep-hybrid-sleep-and-hibernate-on-a-laptop\/","url_meta":{"origin":2422,"position":2},"title":"“What is the difference between sleep, hybrid sleep, and hibernate on a laptop?”","author":"Fred Langa","date":"2020-05-28","format":false,"excerpt":"(Answer requested by Shreya Mehta) In\u00a0sleep mode\u00a0(sometimes called\u00a0suspend), your PC goes into a low-power state, consuming just enough electricity to keep the RAM contents intact; to monitor for system events (such as a key- or mouse-click, or closing the lid on a laptop); and to run similar low-power processes. The\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "A reader asks..."","block_context":{"text":"A reader asks...","link":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/category\/a-reader-asks\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/langa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/sleep-hybrid-hibernate.jpg?fit=404%2C442&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4042,"url":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/2020\/01\/08\/why-does-a-dead-laptop-revive-after-putting-it-in-the-freezer\/","url_meta":{"origin":2422,"position":3},"title":"“Why does a dead laptop revive after putting it in the freezer?”","author":"Fred Langa","date":"2020-01-08","format":false,"excerpt":"(Answer requested by Edgar Ferrer) Yikes! If this actually worked on your laptop, you're very lucky. The actual, true \"put it in the fridge\" advice is very old-school, and is\/was a nothing-left-to-lose, last-ditch recovery option for malfunctioning spinning-platter hard drives. Deep-chilling a mechanical drive could sometimes free up stuck internal\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "A reader asks..."","block_context":{"text":"A reader asks...","link":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/category\/a-reader-asks\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1412,"url":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/2018\/12\/19\/a-reader-asks-how-can-i-reduce-laptop-noise\/","url_meta":{"origin":2422,"position":4},"title":"A reader asks: “How can I reduce laptop noise?”","author":"Fred Langa","date":"2018-12-19","format":false,"excerpt":"Laptop noise usually comes from four components: the cooling fans; any spinning-media data-storage device (e.g. hard drive or DVD); the keyboard; and the speakers. We'll discuss those in reverse order, and immediately discount the speakers: I seriously doubt that's the kind of noise you were referring to! You can just\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "A reader asks..."","block_context":{"text":"A reader asks...","link":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/category\/a-reader-asks\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1917,"url":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/2019\/02\/05\/a-reader-asks-how-do-i-transfer-files-from-an-old-possibly-infected-laptop-to-an-external-hdd\/","url_meta":{"origin":2422,"position":5},"title":"A reader asks: “How do I safely transfer files from an old, possibly infected laptop to an external HDD?”","author":"Fred Langa","date":"2019-02-05","format":false,"excerpt":"First, scan the \"possibly infected\" system using an external, self-contained, bootable, DVD- or flashdrive-based anti-malware tool. (Examples; many are free.) Boot and run the suspect PC from the anti-malware DVD or flash drive --- not from the possibly-infected hard drive. The anti-malware tool then runs, scans, and cleans all the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "A reader asks..."","block_context":{"text":"A reader asks...","link":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/category\/a-reader-asks\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2422","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2422"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2422\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2429,"href":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2422\/revisions\/2429"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2422"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2422"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2422"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/langa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/ide-to-usb.jpg?resize=349%2C340&ssl=1\")
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